29.3.09

Oh second blog of the day .. I was surfing around catching up with everything I seem to miss in a daze and came across Patrice's cupcake give away at soap seduction. she makes the most amazing Shea butter cupcake soaps my mouth waters when I see them.. Well she is having a cupcake giveaway so surf on by her blog to see the amazing soaps she creates as well as her super bright shaving soaps they make mine look positively dreary... well done Patrice....

What a week it has been again, I dream of having an uneventful stress free week the way my sister dreams of her next holiday or car. It started rather fine when I got a new smoker which I'd been after for a while since I adore fresh smoked food, I had an idea for smoked crabs so of we trotted to Norfolk for their well known cromer crabs! After battling arctic winds and freezing cold (ok it wasn't that bad but it sure felt like it)OH forgetting his wellingtons and the silly idea of trying to peddle our pushbikes on sand (it really does not work)we came away with the grand total of 'one' crab eek... so we cheated and popped into a fishmonger on the way back to grab some more.. Smoked crab is defiantly nice but we thought the mackeral we smoked was better especially when I was stuffing grapes with it (ok i ran out of bread lol)..

So a nice start to the week, I received a call from an agency I had chef'd for since a client of theirs had asked to have a meeting with me???? I was puzzled but went along.I was asked to head a restaurant someone is developing and help give its food a wow factor... Oh after last night there was a wow but not a good one.. I was not due to start till next week but went in to see how the current staff run things... I have never had such a bad experience cooking 'ever'..

None of the prep work was done so i was chasing my own backside all night, the present cook had a real problem with me and spend 2 hours on vegetable prepping but when asked where was the vegetables for service she said she hadn't done them she had done her soup for the next day instead with the vegetables...... this was 15mins before service!! 30mins each starter she took and would put food on and promptly forget it. An order for a table of 9 on an anniversary dinner was found screwed up in the bin, I have a routine with orders and since the order was not on the order rack it was not done .... disaster!!!!!! The owner bless him was yelling at the cook until I stepped in and took total responsibility after all if I am to be head chef there the buck stops with me...

Where the wicked witch of the mill comes into it is one of the waitresses was a pure 'bitch' lots of funny comments about only being my first night and not coming back and being extra smarmy nice to the cook she is who we suspect in the missing order fiasco for what reason we cannot fathom. By the end of the night after scrubbing down and discussing it bless the cook comes out with the fact she did resent me turning up she thought she would lose her job (she nearly did) to me, she was shocked about the order and towards the end she did muck in and thanked me for sticking up for her awww.Frankly I didn't think I would be going back but the owner wants me to still give it a go the poor guy was devastated. All this happening and still doing my regular chef job, making soaps cupcakes and melts, I worked 18hrs yesterday home at 1am and at my next job at 7am opps I thought it was 7am I didn't realize the clocks had changed.. Sadly my housework has suffered from the constant working but that can wait for another day.. my OH is cooking dinner for me and I am sat surfing the net with a bottle of bubbly and I cant believe he just asked me for gravy granules lol I don't use them...So i'm of for a rest until later but at least i get a few hours sit down... toodle pip x

20.3.09

Busy Bust Busy that's all I seem to be but by the end of the week I look back and wonder what I have done!The last two weeks though I think have had the most impact of this year!I was at my wits end with everyone moping around and feeling down so I decided to take action!My darling princess pickled onion from the planet cheese had been really down since losing her apprenticeship last month and the fact she would lose her college place after all her hard work, bless not only that a social butterfly finds it hard to spread her wings with no income! So the queen of planet cheese came up with a plan......I called in a favor which funny enough cost a favor at the same time darn it my favor maths must be out, I took on a temp second job for a few days which got a recruitment friend out of trouble but meant working almost 18hr days for a few days, the result both my beloved apples of my eye are working temp jobs to get them through till college finishes and that means it lightens my financial load and they pick up references to boot! I hounded the college and my girls ex boss the result she is fast tracking her qualification and fingers crossed qualifies in 13 weeks then she can take her dream job on the Stella cruise line..

I also got to play with new soap this week and the pictures are of my Ayurvedic benzoin, chai and neem soaps. Tonight I have bath melt favors to make and 3 dozen blueberry chardonnay cupcakes to attempt. Mind you thats if I can fit it in with trying to make my website work eek if anyone knows flash pretty please can you give me a few pointers as I have tried everything to link my urls... it at www.7sinscakes.co.uk..

11.3.09

WHY WOMEN CAN'T SLEEPHave you ever wondered how a woman's brain works? Well....it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration:Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved.

A man has only 2 balls and they consume all his thoughts.

I feel I've been juggling all of those blue balls at the same time lately so today i'm chilling out.... Well chilling making 3 dozen cupcakes and a whole batch of cherry bath bombs and bath melts.The plan was to have the 2 websites finished this week and uploaded both the soap and the cupcake sites are almost done, but we have had an incredible week here...

I have had fav reviews with my cupcakes with one person comparing them to The hummingbird bakery in south kensington uk now i must admit it left me a little blank until I opened this months delicious magazine and there in full color was the hummingbird bakery 'cupcakes suppliers to the stars' oh i was jumping up and down with excitement!

My crazy young daughter has decided she wants to work on a cruise ship so is fast tracking her stylist course which means mum's taxi has been running at full pelt, my dear little sister is visiting so we have been doing girlie things like shopping staying up late on the couch watching movies. She had loads of fun at the beach flying kites with me and getting sand in her knickers hehe.. I have a few days not working which is such a relief as yesterday was an 18hr work day...

The new month new me is coming along nicely I spent 2 days having my hair done and it is now dark chocolate and down to my waist, I started my exercises and can proudly say I've done about 5 situps well it's a start I might work on my ankles today! Getting back to exercise is really hard I think about it more than do it and in my mind gym i'm really fit mind you trying to do the housework by mental telepathy just does not seem to work maybe i'm doing it wrong hehe..

I've been reading some friends blogs and i must recommend Daisy May's Purple divahttp://purplediva.wordpress.com/

Well I must get on and do some more work or i'll never get to the amazon.. heres a picture of what I want to do in the amazon umm maybe I am crazy .......

2.3.09

New Month New Start.... Day two of March and already is a mixed feeling month...Today was one of those days where everything that could go right for me did, I had a meeting at work and let the boss convince me to go back and on a slight promotion.. I also found all of last years missing data which included all of my insurances and recipes and product information files I had been stressing over for 2 mths. I got a rave review from the cakes that had arrived at the testers places and one food critic loved them, The website is coming along nicely as is the Fairy Alchemy one.... After a busy strange time it was a lovely refreshing change..

Whilst all the things I've been working towards is slowly coming together it is tinged with sadness. a lot of my friends and family have been affected in the job cuts across the country and some are suffering from it really badly. It's affecting everyone differently with some now spending the day in bed crying to the ones who are goggle eyed staring at job advertisements and applying for every single one. Other friends don't talk about promotion or getting a new job as much, even people with what was once a secure job are worried. I went through similar a few years back when I lost my job, I had invested all I had family, career and money in relocating to a high flying job so when it happened to me I had no reserves and was living in a strange place... It took a long time to turn around from that and i learned what was important and not and it changed my point of view on a lot of things. I went back to basics and i went back to the things I actually really did like doing after all wearing a suit really got on my nerves..The only advice I can offer is go back to basics and if you cant have what you want then want what you do have. Material goods can always be replaced but people cant. It's said there is light at the end of the tunnel don't concentrate on the light just know its a tunnel..